Flesh and Blood

11

"...So, will you?"

Willow Rosenberg stood with her arms crossed in a defensive manner, her green eyes harsh, yet earthly. The superior witch had just asked Sienna to help them take Amy and Warren down; a huge favor to ask of somebody they didn't know or trust, but yet they had Sienna by the bootstraps. She had a hand in Isobelle's kidnapping, and this would be her chance to redeem herself a bit, if the young witch chose to take it. Willow had just suggested to Sienna that they use her connection to the coven to drain Amy's powers, turning her into a conduit to channel their Magicks into an enchanted object. The object in question was a golden jigsaw cube with inscriptions carved into each piece. Willow's instructions were to disassemble the cube and have Sienna focus her Magick to put the pieces back together. Doing so, with another spell that Willow would be performing in sync, the box would absorb Sienna's energy alongside Amy's coven. However, there was a catch, and although Willow did not come out with it, the young witch already knew what it was. If she channelled too much Magick into the box without keeping some for herself, she would die.

This meant Sienna had to focus even harder at how much Magick she lets flow through her. She had felt the coven's powers before, when they would meditate and perform costly spells—specifically the one to resurrect Warren from the dead. There was so much energy flowing through her veins that she almost thought she would get addicted to the power. She looked at Willow, and then the blond-haired head slayer. There was no expression on Buffy's face that resembled empathy for what they were asking her to do. Buffy's stare was cold as she waited for an answer.

"How long are you going to continue to blame me for Amy's plans?" Sienna whined; her brows furrowed. She knew it was a stupid question, but she still had to try to find a way around it.

"You do realize I can just kill you, regardless of if you comply or not?" Buffy threatened emptily. Their time was running out, and she was done dancing around with her enemies to get what she wanted. "Willow claims you have a bit of good still left in you. Now is the time to prove it. Until then" —she turned to Willow— "you're responsible for her." The slayer left the room, leaving just the two witches alone.

"That was rather blunt," Sienna mumbled. She crossed her arms and leaned against the far wall. Examining her bruised wrists where she was once tied to a chair, she waited for Willow's next move.

"I don't blame her. And if you were in her position, you'd probably be the same way." Willow knew Sienna was trying to weasel her way out of this dangerous task and revisited the original subject, asking her in a more abrasive tone, "So, are you going to do this for us, or do you want to die a useless rat?" It was harsh, the redhead was aware of that, but in this trying time, there was no more time to play nice. She herself would never hurt Sienna, but she couldn't say the same for Buffy, Spike, Angel... even Giles. Buffy is the only one of them that hadn't yet killed a human.

Sienna knew that this wasn't really a choice. She either proved that she wanted redemption, or she died—it was disturbingly simple. Nodding her head, she agreed, "Guess we better get to practicing."

"I'll have some of my witches researching on the safest possible spell we can cast. You may think that we don't care if you die, but I do. Let's head up to the library."

When the two witches reached the study, they caught Xander as he was heading out. He stopped as soon as he saw them at the door.

"Hey," he said, "I was just coming to get you. Well, I didn't think she would be with you, but regardless... Buffy's about to brief everyone." He led them back into the room where their fearless blond leader leaned against Giles' desk at the far end of the library. Her hair was wrapped up in a messy bun, her eyes dark and sunken in; the trauma of the recent events weighing heavy on the slayer.